CRIME: By the Sword

John Deering, 39, had spent 17 years in jail and hated it. When he was
arrested in Hamtramck, Mich., last July as a robbery suspect, Michigan
authorities wanted to jail him again. But John Deering (who had shot
his way to freedom once before) rather than take a 15-year jail
sentence in Michigan confessed to the murder of Oliver R. Meredith Jr.
in a robbery at Salt Lake City two months before. Extradited to Utah
and tried for first-degree murder, he stolidly maintained that he was a
habitual criminal, would be better dead. The judge agreed. Utah law
gave him...